“Shanghai. Cheng’s boats are in Shanghai.”
Ben took a deep breath. He was going to be spending a lot of time on the road. He only hoped the paperwork was as good as Tenzin was assuming. His insistence on her riding with the truck was also a practical consideration. If they ran into any trouble, Tenzin—with her flawless Mandarin and ability to influence human thought with amnis—would be far more able to handle the police. It would be up to him to make sure things didn’t get unnecessarily violent.
In fact, that had been his stated assignment more times than he could count. He could even hear Giovanni’s voice in the back of his mind.
“You’ll be helping Tenzin on this, Benjamin. Please try to avoid unnecessary violence.”
It might even be considered a motto at this point in his life.
Still, Ben shook his head. He knew he had to be firm. Tenzin would take any and every advantage otherwise. “Tiny, if I’m doing all this driving and packing and more driving, it’s my pick. It won’t be unreasonable. Don’t you trust me?”
Tenzin sat back and sipped her tea again. She thought. Sipped some more. Ben was finished talking. He had his pick of a centuries-old treasure cache on the ancient Silk Road on the line. He picked up a skewer of lamb and savored the taste, licking the corner of his mouth when the juices dripped.
“You’re right,” he said. “Uyghur food is amazing.”
“One thing,” she conceded. “One piece. And don’t piss me off.”
He held in the triumphant smile. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Yes, you would.”
“Maybe I’d dream about pissing you off, but I wouldn’t actually do it. Not intentionally anyway.”
“One piece, Benjamin.”
He held out his hand. “You’re in the truck with me while we’re transporting the goods, and I get one piece of my choosing from the cache.”
“Agreed.”
They shook and then he eyed her plate. “Are you going to finish that?”
“You’re a bottomless pit, you know that, don’t you?”
“Someone has to finish all this food.”
He finished the rest of the food with relish and tried not to show his triumph at the bargain. Tenzin had centuries of treasure in that cache and probably no idea how much it was worth. She didn’t read auction catalogues or museum publications.
Neither did most of Ben’s friends, but then again, he’d always had unusual interests. He was fine with it.
His best guess was, if Tenzin was valuing the cache at twenty million, it was probably closer to twenty-five or thirty, depending on the condition of the silk. It didn’t matter, really. Ben had no interest in selling anything. Whatever piece he chose would be for his own collection.
“You know,” she said as she watched him finish the food. “You’re the one who fits in here.”
He looked up. “Me?”
“You have Persian eyes, Benjamin.”
He shook his head. “My mom was Lebanese, not Persian.”
Tenzin shrugged. “What does blood know about borders? Persian eyes. You should be happy. They’re very beautiful.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
Tenzin looked around the restaurant, but no one was staring at them anymore. She leaned back and watched Ben finish his tea. He got out his wallet to pay the bill, wondering if Tenzin was even carrying any modern currency.
Probably not.
Then again, the vampire was going to hand over a priceless piece of jewelry or artwork of Ben’s choosing in exchange for his help driving a truck and packing. It might have been more time than he’d planned on spending in China, but how dangerous could it be? All in all, he was happy with the deal.
Dinner could be his treat.
CHAPTER FOUR
It was close to two in the morning—middle of the night for humans, but the heart of the working day for vampires—when they met Cheng’s man in Ürümqi. Ben hung back, watching Tenzin from a distance as she talked with the vampire whose eyes kept flicking from Tenzin’s slightly hovering form to Ben as he leaned in a small doorway. Ben wore the dark shirt and jeans he’d worn to dinner and carried nothing on him that the vampire would easily detect.
The small knives at his waist had been acquired in the market from a shop above a metalworker who sold copper teapots on the ground floor. He’d quickly ushered Tenzin upstairs to show her the far more illegal offerings he sold to discreet customers. The revolver on Ben’s ankle wasn’t fancy, but it was serviceable. As for the more obvious firepower they’d bought, that had been stored back at the hotel. After they left the warehouse where they were meeting Cheng’s man, they would stop by the hotel, check out, and get on the road as soon as possible.
According to his phone, driving to Kashgar would take over twenty-three hours, so he was expecting to be on the road for at least two days. Tenzin assured him that the highway was clear, if winding, and they would have no problems traversing it.
Ben knew Tenzin didn’t know jack shit about roads, so he wasn’t taking anything for granted. Still, she’d also told him that much of the fresh produce in China was grown in the Kashgar region, which made the likelihood of passable roads more probable. From what he could tell, the major highways in China were as good as those in the US. Massive amounts of commodities traveled thousands of kilometers every day by truck. One small vegetable delivery truck would hardly garner much notice.
The truck Cheng had given them told Ben that the vampire who’d loaned it was either a very good smuggler or a very real businessman. Possibly both. More of a delivery truck than a semi-rig, it was small enough that Ben would be able to drive it, big enough to hide the crates that Tenzin said they’d need, and just banged up enough to look like every other truck on the road. No fancy logos decorated the outside, but a very official set of characters and numbers were visible on the back.
He saw Tenzin frowning at the papers the vampire handed her. Would she know what to look for? He’d called Caspar earlier to double-check the research he’d done online. He knew there should be a forged commercial license for him, along with several different permits for each province they’d have to pass through. The paperwork made Ben nervous. There was so much and Tenzin, for all her expertise, was complete and total crap at understanding paperwork. Ignoring her earlier instructions, he walked over.
He spoke in Latin this time. “What is it?”
He held out his hand for the papers, and with an amused look, she handed them to him. They were all in Mandarin.
Of course they were. Shit.
Speaking Chinese was one thing. Reading and writing was completely different. And Ben’s reading definitely qualified as “appalling.”
Tenzin barely glanced at him and continued talking with the other vampire, who held out an envelope. It looked like linen paper sealed in intricate fashion, a distinctive stamp pressed into rich red wax on both sides with a small jade bead making up the center of the stamp. Tenzin glanced at it, then put it in her pocket.
Cheng’s man fired off rapid Mandarin that Ben had a hard time following. He thought the vampire was offering to hire them a driver—for a small extra fee, of course—but Tenzin immediately held up a hand.
“No, no, no,” she said, more slowly. “I prefer my own driver.”
“You don’t trust Cheng?” There was a gleam in the vampire’s eye. “I’m sure he would prefer his own driver for the truck. A gesture of consideration, of course.”
Tenzin’s mouth curled up at the corners, her eyes warmed, and Ben had to keep his mouth from dropping open.
It was the most unabashedly seductive smile he’d ever seen on her face.
“Oh, Cheng knows exactly how much I trust him. And so do you, Kesan.”
Ben recognized the tone of her voice, he’d just never heard it from her.
But that smile was unmistakable, and now Ben wondered just who Cheng was to Tenzin.
He didn’t think of that part of her life. Or
the lack of it. He’d known she’d been mated to Beatrice’s father, but it had been a political marriage. Wasn’t it? He’d never seen her with a lover. Never seen her even show any interest in a man. Or a woman. Not with that kind of smile on her face.
Her body language still telling a story he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear, Tenzin said, “Tell Cheng not to worry. If we have problems, he can be sure I will have my human get in touch with Jonathan.”
His heartbeat had picked up, and he saw Tenzin’s head angle toward him. She’d heard it, which meant the other vampire had, too.
Ben cursed himself silently. Any unexpected change in his pulse was something he’d been trained to control since he was a boy. Vampires might seem like genteel creatures, but at the heart, his aunt and uncle had never let him forget they were predators.
And predators chased prey.
“Do not become prey, Benjamin. Because if you do, you will be chased. And you will be caught.”
His heartbeat was marking him as prey, and there was no way of explaining his unconscious reaction. Because it wasn’t from fear. Fear was something he’d trained away for many years. It was from something far more complicated.
Tenzin’s eyes met his for a moment, but he couldn’t read their expression. It was dark and fleeting. Then her smile curved again, but it was false. Something inside him screamed and beat at the facade. Tenzin stepped closer and placed a hand on his cheek, rubbing her thumb under his lower lip absently. His pulse spiked again.
“Go wait for me in the truck,” she said in soft English. “We’ll only be a minute.”
He pulled away from her and walked to the delivery truck, not understanding exactly what had happened. He climbed into the driver’s seat and slid it back, surprised that Cheng’s vampire had even fit in the truck to drive. Then he sat back and stared at the dashboard while his thoughts raced.
Tenzin and Cheng? Who was Jonathan?
Why the hell had she smiled at him like that, and why did the falseness of it grate against his nerves?
Tenzin and Cheng?
“He owes me a number of favors…”
Now Ben was wondering what kind of favors they traded.
He shook his head. It didn’t matter. It was none of his business. But he couldn’t forget her smile.
It was more like an hour, and not the minute she promised, before Cheng’s associate opened the truck door for Tenzin. She didn’t hesitate as he’d seen her do with vehicles in the past. She lifted herself into the cab and settled on the passenger seat.
“I will see you in Shanghai, Kesan.”
“Are you sure I cannot send my driver with you?”
“Quite sure.”
“Safe travels. We will see you in the city.”
Then the door was closed and Ben didn’t have time to wonder at her ease getting into the truck. He started the engine and pulled away, pretending to be the professional he was supposed to be. Pretending not to notice the stiff set of her shoulders beside him.
They made it all of five blocks before she said, “Pull over.”
He pulled over.
“What the hell was that?”
Now that tone was familiar.
He put the truck in park and sat back but didn’t turn to her.
“Explain yourself, Benjamin.”
He shrugged.
“I gave specific instructions before we left the hotel. Stay back. You’re a driver. Not important. Don’t make yourself visible.”
“I know.”
“But you just couldn’t help yourself, could you?”
He said nothing. She was right. Even though it grated at the adolescent pride he knew was a weakness, he should have followed her instructions and made himself as inconspicuous as possible.
“Now you are visible. A person, not just a human who belongs to me. Kesan knows you are not only a driver. You are a driver who speaks Latin. Which he might speak, by the way, as Cheng’s first is a former English clergyman. He also knows you speak Mandarin, because of the way you reacted to what I said about Cheng. What were you thinking?”
He hadn’t been thinking. Clearly.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t? Because your heartbeat told Kesan that you were either frightened, angry, or reacting to something else. Frightened and angry are the worst options, so now he thinks I’ve brought my young lover to China into the territory of his master, who has never been known to share well with others.”
“And what, exactly, would he be sharing?” Ben muttered.
She was on him in a heartbeat. Clutching his chin to force his face to her as she bared her fangs.
“Your presumption irritates me. Do not forget who I am, Benjamin Vecchio.”
Ben stared at her, unblinking, and his pulse didn’t trip. It had been a long time since he’d seen her this angry. He took a deep breath and opened his mouth, but she cut him off before he could speak, jerking his chin to the side as she sat back in her own seat. He could still feel the edges of her nails in his neck.
“I don’t want to hear your explanation. I expected better from you. You’re too smart to act this stupid, Ben. Don’t let it happen again. For now, we play things as they stand.”
“And how do they stand?” he asked, putting the truck back into gear.
“Cheng will dismiss you. He pays little attention to any humans. That is what Jonathan is for.”
“Jealous former boyfriend, huh?” He tried to control the flush of anger he could feel on his cheeks, but knew she probably scented his blood rising.
“Boyfriend is a ridiculous human term for the three-hundred-year-old water vampire who controls the Shanghai Group. And what Cheng is to me is none of your business. Drive.”
He didn’t say another word until they got back to the hotel. Then it was terse questions and quick answers. Weapons were packed. Supplies were stowed. He checked out even though they only had a few hours of driving before dawn. It would be enough to start out of the city; Ben only hoped they could find daylight shelter along the road.
An hour after they’d left the lights of Ürümqi behind, he asked her, “What are you going to do during the day?”
“I think the safest route is to stay in the back of the truck. Find a petrol station or a way station where you can rest. If you sleep in the front, no one will look in the back. I won’t sleep anyway, so as long as I stay out of the light, I’ll be fine.”
“Is there a vent back there?”
“I’ll be fine, Ben.”
He didn’t like the idea of her being trapped in the back of the truck, but then, he pitied anyone who tried to break in. Tenzin was still dangerous, even at noon. The truck came equipped with curtains for the front windows, so he’d be able to sleep on the bench in relative privacy. It was probably a better plan than trying to find a hotel or some other lodging on the road.
“Fine,” he said. “I’ll look for a rest stop once it starts to get light. I’m getting pretty tired.”
He’d had a total of six hours of sleep in the past twenty-four hours. Not the worst he’d ever clocked, but not ideal, especially when he was navigating foreign roads in a truck he’d never driven before. One hundred fifty kilometers out of Ürümqi, he was feeling it, and he could see the sky starting to lighten.
“Next place,” Tenzin murmured. She’d been silent for most of the trip. Usually, when they were together, it was a nonstop back-and-forth of jokes and stories. Now…
“I’m sorry,” he said, spotting a sign for what looked like a travel plaza. Two trucks in front of him were exiting the highway, so he followed them.
“About what?”
“About earlier. I was trying to help, but I know I messed things up.”
Her voice was slightly warmer when she answered. “This can be a very dangerous place. I’m trying to protect you.”
“I know.”
“It would be easier if you were vampire.”
“Not gonna happen,” he whispered.
“Yo
u’re too young to make that decision.”
It was an old argument. One he’d been having off and on with her since he was seventeen. One he didn’t feel like having at the moment, so he let it drop.
Ben pulled off the road and found a place to park among the other trucks at the road stop. His was not the only delivery truck on the lot, though most were the larger diesel trucks that filled the highway. Still, they were in Xinjiang, so the mix of faces was diverse enough to warrant no second looks when he went in to use the bathroom and grab a bowl of noodles to fill his stomach. There were truckers there, but also many other travelers. Even a Westerner with a small group of Han Chinese, who looked like they were dressed for business.
No one spared him a glance.
He made it back to the truck and handed Tenzin the tea he’d bought for her.
She was grinning. “Look what I found.”
He took a long drink of water and climbed in the truck.
“What’s up?”
“Cheng’s people are quite clever. That is what is up.”
She tugged the curtains closed and pulled away the back cushion on the passenger’s side, revealing a hatch about the size of a large dog door.
“What is that?”
“I checked in the cargo area, but you can’t see it from there. A false wall! It’s been welded in place. You can’t access it from the compartment, only from the driver’s area.”
“A smuggler’s hatch? Nice.”
She shrugged. “It’s always good to have some places that remain invisible from prying eyes.”
“Will the crates fit in there?”
She shook her head. “It’s about the width of a twin bed, if not narrower. And only accessed by this door. You could fit something small, but it’s made for hiding a person.”
“Or persons,” he said grimly, knowing that more than one vampire was involved in human trafficking.
Of course, a lot of humans were involved in that, too.
“Cheng quit that business many years ago. He does still move some people discreetly, but only those who want to be moved.”
He didn’t really want to hear about Cheng.